Editing Eternal return (section)

== Friedrich Nietzsche<!--linked from 'Amor fati'--> ==
Eternal recurrence ({{langx|de|Ewige Wiederkunft}}) is one of the central concepts of the philosophy of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] (1844–1900).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Anderson |first=R. Lanier |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |date=17 March 2017 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/nietzsche/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref> While the idea itself is not original to Nietzsche, his unique response to it gave new life to the theory, and speculation as to the correct interpretation of Nietzsche's doctrine continues to this day.

===Precursors===
The discovery of the [[laws of thermodynamics]] in the 19th century restarted the debate among scientists and philosophers about the ultimate fate of the universe, which brought in its train many questions about the nature of time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=D'Iorio |first=Paolo |date=2014 |url=https://lexicon.cnr.it/ojs/index.php/LP/article/view/414/338 |title=The Eternal Return: Genesis and Interpretation |journal=Lexicon Philosophicum |issue=2 |doi=10.19283/lph-20142.414 |pages=66–67}}</ref> [[Eduard von Hartmann]] argued that the universe's final state would be identical to the state in which it had begun; [[Eugen Dühring]] rejected this idea, claiming that it carried with it the necessary consequence that the universe would begin again, and that the same forms would repeat themselves eternally, a doctrine which Dühring viewed as dangerously pessimistic.<ref>{{harvnb|D'Iorio|2014|pages=68–74}}</ref> {{ill|Johann Gustav Vogt|de}}, on the other hand, argued in favour of a cyclical system, additionally positing the spatial co-existence of an infinite number of identical worlds.<ref>{{harvnb|D'Iorio|2014|page=42–43}}</ref> [[Louis Auguste Blanqui]] similarly claimed that in an infinite universe, every possible combination of forms must repeat itself eternally across both time and space.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blanqui.kingston.ac.uk/texts/eternity-by-the-stars-1872/ |title=Eternity by the Stars (1872) |website=The Blanqui Archive}}</ref>

===Nietzsche's formulation===
[[File:Nietzsche-Stein 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|Nietzsche wrote that the concept of eternal return first occurred to him at [[Lake Silvaplana]] in Switzerland, "beside a huge rock that towered aloft like a pyramid".<ref name=Ecce/>]]

Nietzsche may have drawn upon a number of sources in developing his own formulation of the theory. He had studied Pythagorean and Stoic philosophy,<ref name=Kaufmann>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00kauf/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access=registration |last=Kaufmann |first=Walter A. |title=Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist |date=1974 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00kauf/page/316/mode/2up?view=theater 317–319] |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-6910-1983-3 |edition=4th}}</ref> was familiar with the works of contemporary philosophers such as Dühring and Vogt,<ref>{{harvnb|D'Iorio|2014|page=43, 74}}</ref> and may have encountered references to Blanqui in a book by [[Friedrich Albert Lange]].<ref name=Fouillee>{{cite journal |first=Alfred |last=Fouillée |url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Note_sur_Nietzsche_et_Lange_:_%C2%AB_le_retour_%C3%A9ternel_%C2%BB |title=Note sur Nietzsche et Lange: 'le retour éternel' |journal=Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger |volume=67 |date=1909 |pages=519–525 |language=fr}}</ref> He was also a fan of the author [[Heinrich Heine]], one of whose books contains a passage discussing the theory of eternal return.<ref name=Kaufmann/> Nevertheless, Nietzsche claimed that the doctrine struck him one day as a sudden revelation, while walking beside [[Lake Silvaplana]] in Switzerland.<ref name=Ecce/>

The first published presentation of Nietzsche's version of the theory appears in ''[[The Gay Science]]'', section 341, where it is proposed to the reader as a [[thought experiment]].

{{blockquote|text=What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness, and say to you, "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence" ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schacht|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNdeC34id4wC|title=Nietzsche's Postmoralism: Essays on Nietzsche's Prelude to Philosophy's Future|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-64085-5|pages=237|language=en}}</ref>}}

Nietzsche expanded upon this concept in the philosophical novel ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'', later writing that eternal return was "the fundamental idea of the work".<ref name=Ecce>{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Friedrich |translator=Anthony M. Ludovici |title=Ecce Homo |page=96 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteWorksOfFriedrichNietzschevol.17-EcceHomo/page/n115/mode/2up?view=theater |publisher=Macmillan |date=1911}}</ref> In this novel, the titular Zarathustra is initially struck with horror at the thought that all things must recur eternally; ultimately, however, he overcomes his aversion to eternal return and embraces it as his most fervent desire. In the penultimate chapter of the work ("The Drunken Song"), Zarathustra declares: "All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if you ever wanted one thing twice, if you ever said, 'You please me, happiness! Abide, moment!' then you wanted ''all'' back ... ''For all joy wants—eternity''."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Kaufmann |editor-first=Walter |date=1954 |url=https://archive.org/details/portablenietzsch00niet/page/434/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access=registration |title=The Portable Nietzsche |publisher=The Viking Press |page=435}}</ref>

===Interpretation===
[[Martin Heidegger]] points out that Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence in ''The Gay Science'' presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. Many readings argue that Nietzsche was not attempting to make a cosmological or theoretical claim i.e. saying that eternal recurrence is a true statement about how the world works. Instead, the emotional reaction to the thought experiment serves to reveal whether one is living life to the best.<ref>{{Citation |last=Anderson |first=R. Lanier |title=Friedrich Nietzsche |date=2022 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/nietzsche/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |access-date=2023-11-28 |edition=Summer 2022 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> According to Heidegger, the significant point is the burden imposed by the ''question'' of eternal recurrence, regardless of whether or not such a thing could possibly be true.<ref>{{cite book |last=Heidegger |first=Martin |title=Nietzsche, Volume II: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same |translator=[[David Farrell Krell]] |location=New York |publisher=Harper and Row |date=1984 |page=25}}</ref> The idea is similar to Nietzsche's concept of ''[[amor fati]]'', which he describes in ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]'': "My formula for greatness in a human being is ''amor fati'': that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to bear what is necessary, still less conceal it ... but ''love'' it."<ref>{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |first=Frederich |translator=Walter Kaufmann |title=Basic Writings of Nietzsche |publisher=Modern Library |date=2000 |isbn=978-0-6797-8339-8 |page=714}}</ref><ref name=Sinhababu>{{cite journal |last1=Sinhababu |first1=Neil |last2=Kuong |first2=Un Teng |date=2019 |title=Loving the Eternal Recurrence |journal=The Journal of Nietzsche Studies |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=106–124 |doi=10.5325/jnietstud.50.1.0106 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

On the other hand, Nietzsche's posthumously published notebooks contain an attempt at a logical proof of eternal return, which is often adduced in support of the claim that Nietzsche believed in the theory as a real possibility.<ref name=Sinhababu/> The proof is based upon the premise that the universe is infinite in duration, but contains a finite quantity of energy. This being the case, all matter in the universe must pass through a finite number of combinations, and each series of combinations must eventually repeat in the same order, thereby creating "a circular movement of absolutely identical series".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Ludovici |editor-first=Anthony M. |date=1913 |volume=II |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: The Will to Power |at=§1066 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52915/52915-h/52915-h.htm#Page_428 |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> However, scholars such as Neil Sinhababu and Kuong Un Teng have suggested that the reason this material remained unpublished was because Nietzsche himself was unconvinced that his argument would hold up to scrutiny.<ref name=Sinhababu/>{{notetag|One rebuttal of Nietzsche's theory, put forward by his contemporary [[Georg Simmel]], is summarised by [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] as follows: "Even if there were exceedingly few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they would not have to repeat in the same configurations. Suppose there were three wheels of equal size, rotating on the same axis, one point marked on the circumference of each wheel, and these three points lined up in one straight line. If the second wheel rotated twice as fast as the first, and if the speed of the third wheel was 1/π of the speed of the first, the initial line-up would never recur."<ref>{{harvnb|Kaufmann|1974|page=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00kauf/page/326/mode/2up?view=theater 327]}}</ref>}}

A third possibility is that Nietzsche was attempting to create a new ethical standard by which people should judge their own behaviour.<ref name=Oger>{{cite journal |last=Oger |first=Eric |date=1997 |title=The Eternal Return as Crucial Test |journal=Journal of Nietzsche Studies |issue=14 |pages=4–7 |jstor=20717674}}</ref> In one of his unpublished notes, Nietzsche writes: "The question which thou wilt have to answer before every deed that thou doest: 'is this such a deed as I am prepared to perform an incalculable number of times?' is the best ballast."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Ludovici |editor-first=Anthony M. |date=1911 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm#THE_ETERNAL_RECURRENCE |title=Friedrich Nietzsche: The Twilight of the Idols |chapter=The Eternal Recurrence |at=§28 |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> Taken in this sense, the doctrine has been compared to the [[categorical imperative]] of [[Immanuel Kant]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kaufmann|1974|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00kauf/page/322/mode/2up?view=theater 22–23]}}</ref> Once again, however, the objection is raised that no such ethical imperative appears in any of Nietzsche's published writings,<ref name=Oger/> and this interpretation is therefore rejected by most modern scholars.<ref name=Sinhababu/>